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The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
S. Sunder
Nuclear Technology | Volume 144 | Number 2 | November 2003 | Pages 259-273
Technical Paper | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3443
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The relationship between molybdenum oxidation state and iodine volatility in nuclear fuel was investigated using high-temperature Knudsen cell-mass spectroscopy. It was observed that the ratio of the intensities of molecular iodine ions I2+ and CsI+ in the Knudsen cell-mass spectroscopic experiments can be used to investigate the iodine volatility in fuel under different conditions. The experiments show that the iodine volatility is similar in systems consisting of CsI alone, CsI/UO2, and CsI/UO2/MoOx (with molybdenum in oxidation states 0, 2, and 4). The iodine volatility is much higher, however, in CsI/UO2/MoO3 systems (with molybdenum in oxidation state = 6). The iodine volatility in the fuel increases significantly if oxidation of the molybdenum goes to the MoO3 stage. The increase in the iodine volatility is caused by the formation of elemental iodine from cesium iodide. It is concluded from these measurements that the oxidation of the fuel to the UO2.2 will substantially increase the volatilization of fission product iodine. An analysis of the literature data suggests that the enhanced iodine volatilization process may be initiated when the fuel is oxidized to UO2.02.